Worldcon sites are selected two years in advance, by a secret ballot of WSFS members. All Adult, Military, and Young Adult Attending and Supporting members of LoneStarCon 3 are eligible to take part in the process. Ballots may be submitted by postal mail or in person at the convention, up to the close of voting on Saturday, August 31, 2013. All ballots must be accompanied by an Advance Membership (Voting) fee, which will automatically be converted to a Supporting membership in the 73rd (2015) Worldcon.

LoneStarCon 3 will also host site selection for the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC). The NASFiC is held in years when the Worldcon takes place outside North America. In 2014, the Worldcon will be held in London, UK, meaning that a NASFiC will also take place. NASFiCs are selected one year in advance, but the ballot process is otherwise the same as for Worldcons.

Site Selection in the Constitution

The Site Selection process is governed by Article 4 of the WSFS Constitution. Section 4.6 defines the requirements for a bidder to be included on the Site Selection ballot. There are two key requirements:

The bidding committee must submit file certain documents with the administering committee no later than 180 days before the start of the administering convention (in this case LoneStarCon 3).

The proposed site must be at least five hundred (500) miles or eight hundred (800) kilometres from the site at which selection occurs (in this case, San Antonio, Texas).

Site Selection Ballots

Site selection is undertaken by written ballot, on a one member, one vote basis. Votes can be submitted by post prior to the Convention, or by hand at LoneStarCon 3 itself.

To be eligible to vote, you must be a living, natural person and either an Attending, Military, Young Adult, or Supporting Member of LoneStarCon 3. (Please note that Child Memberships and Single Day Admissions are NOT eligible to vote in site selection.) If you do not yet have a membership, please start by purchasing one before proceeeding.

To submit a postal ballot, you should then download and print the relevant ballot form, complete it, and return it to the Site Selection Administrator. All postal ballots must be received by Sunday, August 18, 2013. Postal ballots must be mailed directly to the Site Selection Administrator at the following address - please do NOT send ballots to the main convention address in Texas.

Please take care to read the instructions on the ballot carefully. The ballot includes a place to record your personal information, your LoneStarCon 3 membership number, and the voting token for your online payment of the voting fee (see below). Voting is tallied by preferential balloting procedures. This means that you should indicate your favorite selection with a “1,” your next favorite with a “2,” and so on. If you mark an “X” with no other marks, that will count as a “1” for that bid and no other preferences. Note that ballots cast on behalf of memberships held by non-natural persons, such as "Guest of" memberships, clubs, and toys, may only be voted as "No Preference." Do not forget to sign your ballot(s) if you want the vote to count for your choice(s).

Note: copies of the ballot forms are also included in Progress Report 4. This Progress Report will be posted in late May 2013 to all members who have specified that they would like to receive printed publications.

You will need to pay an Advanced Supporting Membership (Voting Fee) to take part in the site selection process. This fee is $40 for the 2015 Worldcon election, and $35 for the 2014 NASFiC election. In each case this fee will automatically convert to a supporting membership in the winning convention, no matter who you vote for.

If you wish to pay your voting fee by personal check or money order, simply enclose the relevant payment (in US funds) when posting your ballot to us.

Please remember, all postal ballots must be received by Sunday, August 18, 2013. Voting in person at the convention will continue until 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 31, 2013.

If you delegate someone to hand-carry your ballot for delivery at the convention, please ensure that you have a LoneStarCon 3 membership, or that your voting agent is able to buy one on your behalf, and that you have purchased a voting token or provided your voting agent with funds to pay the voting fee.

The results of the site selection votes will be announced at the WSFS Business Meeting on the morning of Sunday, September 1, 2013.

If you have a question about any aspect of the site selection process which is not answered by the information on this page or on the ballot form itself, please write to us at siteselection@LoneStarCon3.org and we will do our best to help.

Bidders and Filings

Three bids have filed for the 2015 Worldcon. These are as follows.

The full committee listings and official filing documents for all of the 2015 Worldcon and 2014 NASFiC bids can be downloaded from the filings page.

Each site selection bidder has been invited to respond to a set of frequently asked questions as would typically be raised in a "Fannish Inquisition" bidder session. All bidders were given the same questions and all responses have been presented in a common format to ensure fairness. The information contained in these responses is designed to help members by informing the voting process.

All site selection bidders took part in a fannish inquisition at Westercon 66, held in Sacramento, CA, from July 4-7, 2013. All bidder presentations and Q&A sessions were recorded; the videos can be watched by following the links below.